Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardshttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com
Interviews with the world's best volleyball coachesThu, 12 Sep 2019 07:35:18 -0700en-US
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3232The Volleyball Coaching WIzards Podcast features conversations based on the experience and insights of some of the great volleyball coaches from all levels of play and all around the world.Blog – Volleyball Coaching WizardscleanBlog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsjhforman3@gmail.comjhforman3@gmail.com (Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizards)Experience and insights from the world's best volleyball coachesBlog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardshttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/wp-content/uploads/CoverArt1.pnghttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/content/blog/
88345399Volleyball Coaching Wizard Glenn Hoaghttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-glenn-hoag/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-glenn-hoag/#respondThu, 08 Nov 2018 18:24:15 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1816Glenn Hoag has had considerable success coaching at the professional level and took Canada to new heights at the international level. Read More ...

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-glenn-hoag/feed/01816Check your coaching ego at the doorhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/check-your-coaching-ego-at-the-door/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/check-your-coaching-ego-at-the-door/#commentsFri, 27 Jul 2018 16:05:37 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=2184There are coaches who think because they coach at a higher level they are better than others. The Wizards, though, are definitely not among them. Read More ...

“They (coaches) should be judged on their impact and influence.” love that! More people should read at least that introduction.

This is part of the philosophy we express in the book with respect to coaching excellence.

The other motivator is a post by Jim Dietz, a junior college and juniors coach. Jim also has experience in the USA Volleyball High Performance program. His post includes commentary on what he sees as the arrogance of that program’s staff coaches with respect to coaching level. Here’s what he had to say (bold is Jim’s).

I got tired of hearing coaches talk about how they were unjustly assigned to a young age group or a lower skilled group–that the kids they were assigned were beneath them as a D-1 or elite club coach. Speaking up to argue that assertion once, I was told my club isn’t known and I’m a juco coach, so my opinion counts for zero. Yikes. But it gets worse. Worse is the attitude towards coaching colleagues who cannot further that coach’s march up the illusory career ladder. Yeah, I coach at a juco…I suck. Yeah, she’s a high school coach/teacher…if she knew anything, she’d be a 17-elite club coach, she sucks, too,…blah, blah, blah.

Jim is not the only one to express this sort of view. John has definitely heard about this kind of arrogance from others with experience in the HP program, and it’s something that turns off would-be participants. You’ll notice Jim’s use of the past tense to start the quote above, speaking exactly to that issue (If you read the post you’ll find that Jim speaks to the same type of “coaching niche” concept as that mentioned by Wizard Mike Lingenfelter in his interview).

And you know which coaches have those egos and attitudes? It’s the ones with the least justification for doing so. We’re talking about coaches with limited experience and little in the way of perspective – probably mostly younger males, to be honest. They think the level of play of their teams has anything to do with their coaching quality.

Guess what? It’s probably completely unrelated.

Returning to the quote from Jan above, how much impact and influence have these coaches had? Not very much is the answer.

Note that this isn’t just a problem with USAV High Performance, though. Anywhere you have the perception of something as a higher or more “elite” level of coaching you run the risk of this sort of mentality expressing itself. And to be fair, sometimes the perceptions of those not included add fuel to this fire. You can sometimes hear experienced, successful high school coaches acting overly deferential to college coaches just because they are college coaches. It’s foolish, but it happens.

One of the features of the great coaches we’ve interviewed is respect and humbleness. Naturally, disagreements about the finer points of coaching happen. A common theme of the Wizards interviews, though, is the sense that there is still a lot to learn, and that learning can come from all different sources. A Wizard respects other coaches, regardless of competitive level or experience. Even more, they are eager to hear what those with more or different experience from themselves have to say. Neither ego nor arrogance is a factor.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/check-your-coaching-ego-at-the-door/feed/22184Being open to letting other coaches see you workhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/open-letting-coaches-see-work/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/open-letting-coaches-see-work/#respondMon, 17 Jul 2017 14:29:47 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1970The views of coaches in another sport give us an opportunity to consider the value of letting other coaches see you work, and to go see them. Read More ...

In one chapter the subject manager talks about the attitude he sees among his peers with respect to allowing others to come to your practice and observe.

‘One, you’d never invite a stranger in. Two, there’s nobody who’s actually suited to that role anyway. You can’t go to a competitor. You’ve got your courses and occasionally you’re lucky enough to get a Premier League manager who will allow you to come in, but even that’s getting more difficult now, unless you’re out of work.’

Basically, what he says is that he’d never consider inviting a manager he doesn’t already know into one of his training sessions. On top of that, no one would ever let a competitor on their training ground. No doubt you can figure out the reasons for that.

It is worth noting that this manager said former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was an exception. He was happy to have others come watch him at work. Though he did suggest Ferguson had an ulterior motive. He wanted to keep an eye on up and coming coaches.

What if Ferguson’s motives were not actually so selfish as suggested. What if he was just happy to help the learning process for developing managers. Could it be that his mentality is actually part of what made him great?

Our experience interviewing great volleyball coaches says it might very well be that last part. A willingness to share ideas, and to allow other coaches in their gym is a feature of our Wizards. They are happy to share, and even encourage less-experienced coaches to seek them out, to come visit them. Of course they also often share what they know via clinics and conference presentations and the like.

Why are they so open?

Clearly, part of it is an interest in giving back to the coaching community. All of them were once new coaches in their own right. They know what it’s like.

There’s also the feedback mechanism. While many visitors will just write down drills and games, and maybe ask a few questions, others will go deeper. They will challenge the coach to be able to explain their choices and justify their actions – maybe even encouraging change and adaptation. It’s part of the process of review and continuous improvement.

But what about other coaches “stealing” your ideas?

First of all, how many truly unique ideas exist in coaching? Pretty close to zero. Further, just because someone sees what you do in your gym, it doesn’t mean they can replicate that in theirs. We all have unique situations.

So, be open to allowing others in your gym and don’t be shy about asking to go visit others.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/open-letting-coaches-see-work/feed/01970Podcast Episode 32: Killing the Player Insidehttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-32-killing-player-inside/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-32-killing-player-inside/#commentsWed, 15 Mar 2017 15:00:47 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1886In our interview with Glenn Hoag, he shared a comment from legendary coach Julio Velasco. It was that in order to truly be successful a coach must kill the player inside of him. This episode of the podcast explores that Read More ...

]]>In our interview with Glenn Hoag, he shared a comment from legendary coach Julio Velasco. It was that in order to truly be successful a coach must kill the player inside of him. This episode of the podcast explores that comment and its implications for your mentality as a coach. During the discussion we mention the conversation from the Peggy Martin podcast. That’s the one talking about coaching players as they are.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-32-killing-player-inside/feed/2In our interview with Glenn Hoag, he shared a comment from legendary coach Julio Velasco. It was that in order to truly be successful a coach must kill the player inside of him. This episode of the podcast explores that Read More ...In our interview with Glenn Hoag, he shared a comment from legendary coach Julio Velasco. It was that in order to truly be successful a coach must kill the player inside of him. This episode of the podcast explores that Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean30:211886A review of the Wizards book from Down Underhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/review-wizards-book/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/review-wizards-book/#commentsFri, 17 Feb 2017 14:48:13 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1872A new reader of the first Volleyball Coaching Wizards book from Australia shared his initial thoughts with us, plus some added insights. Read More ...

I’ve read both of Jack Schwager’s books, and so immediately related to the concept.

I’m only two chapters into it, but I absolutely love it so far, particularly the chapter with Giovanni Guidetti. I especially like the section about Jamie Morrison (former assistant coach to Karch Kiraly), where Giovanni deliberately runs a drill he knows he will disagree with to start a healthy debate. I work in the completely opposite environment in my day job, I would love to have a boss like that.

As a young graduate engineer, one of my first managers told me that I was very “black and white” and that the world is in fact many shades of grey. The older I’ve gotten, the more I relate to this statement, and that’s why Giovanni’s acceptance of this concept resonated with me so much.

I also personally appreciated the point you made about using punishments in training, and how it stifles creativity and focuses the player only on avoiding errors. I was torn over the concept of punishments at the start of last season, however my wife, who is a neuropsychologist, was dead against them, with the psychological research heavily supporting reward rather than punishment. I adopted a philosophy of patience and rewarding positive behaviours and thoroughly enjoyed the performance and culture that arose from it.

I look forward to the insights that I will find in the remaining chapters. I commend you for getting this book out there. I’ve written a short kindle book, and I appreciate that it’s a passion more so than a means to make a living.

The Jack Schwager books he mentioned are Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards. They were a big part of the inspiration for the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project. Glad to hear the volleyball version does indeed follow along with the Schwager version’s concept.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/review-wizards-book/feed/11872Podcast Episode 31: Observations from the 2016 AVCA Conventionhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-31-observations-2016-avca-convention/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-31-observations-2016-avca-convention/#respondSun, 01 Jan 2017 23:00:23 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1853In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast, the conversation is about some topics that came up during the 2016 AVCA Convention. Read More ...

]]>First of all, if you have not already seen our In Memorial post about the passing of Wizard Carl McGown, please check it out. We are making the text of Carl’s interview freely available. Be sure to pass it around to your friends and colleagues. The whole volleyball coaching community should be aware of Carl’s influence and impact on volleyball training and player development.

Now back to the podcast. In mid-December, John attended the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) annual convention. He presented a session about the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project, which he talks a bit about in this episode. John also attended a number of other sessions. We will probably talk about some of those in future podcasts, but in this episode the focus is on some stuff USA Men’s National Team coach John Speraw discussed in his presentations.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-31-observations-2016-avca-convention/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast, the conversation is about some topics that came up during the 2016 AVCA Convention. Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast, the conversation is about some topics that came up during the 2016 AVCA Convention. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean30:441853In Memorial of Carl McGownhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/memorial-carl-mcgown/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/memorial-carl-mcgown/#respondSat, 31 Dec 2016 02:52:48 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1848One of volleyball's most influential coaches, Carl McGown, has passed away. In honor of his impact, we are providing free access to his Wizards interview. Read More ...

Carl McGown is without doubt one of the most influential individuals the sport has ever known. In terms of his philosophy of coaching, there are those who agree and those who don’t. No one, though, can deny his impact on coaching.

Carl was a leading force in introducing and spreading the idea of specificity of training in volleyball. Those efforts have been instrumental in shifting the training in many gyms from primarily block in focus to the adaptation of more game-like activities. The concept of “the game teaches the game” so often mentioned these day comes straight out of Carl’s teachings.

We could write a whole article on Carl’s history in the game and all the different coaches he influenced along the way. There are plenty of others much better positioned to do so, however. He left a mark on a great many. We leave it to them to share their memories.

What we can do, though, is share Carl’s own thoughts and sense of history. He was one of our early interviews, and his is the first in the initial Volleyball Coaching Wizards book. We posted a trio of excerpts from the interview audio on YouTube as well.

In memorial to Carl’s life and impact, though, we want to share the full text of his interview. Get your PDF version of it here. The document runs 24 pages in total.

Enjoy, and feel free to share it with your coaching friends and colleagues.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/memorial-carl-mcgown/feed/01848Volleyball Coaching Wizards at the 2016 AVCA Conventionhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizards-2016-avca-convention/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizards-2016-avca-convention/#respondMon, 19 Dec 2016 18:51:13 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1836Volleyball Coaching Wizards was featured at the 2016 AVCA Convention, and Wizard Giovanni Guidetti was one of the event's superstars. Read More ...

]]>Last week, in conjunction with the NCAA Division I semifinals and final, was the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) annual Convention. It was an important event for the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project on multiple levels.

First, several Wizards attended the event. Tom Turco and Ruth Nelson – both featured in the first Wizard book – were convention attendees. Mick Haley and Tod Mattox were also there. Among the folks presenting sessions were Wizards Terry Pettit, John Corbelli, Bill Neville, and Sue Gozansky.

Guidetti’s Adventure

Giovanni Guidetti, whose interview is also in the first Wizard book, was a prominent presenter. He was part of the pre-convention program, which focused on takeaways from the 2016 Olympics. Unfortunately, his travel schedule forced his contribution to be done two days after the others. That was Friday. Giovanni gave a 15-minute talk about why he coaches to start the day. He then did his pre-convention session.

Things got a little crazy after that!

Flight schedules for his return trip to his club team in Turkey were fluid. Giovanni was scheduled to start back Friday afternoon, but the first leg of the trip got moved up for some reason. That saw the AVCA organizers say they needed to get him to the airport, This meant he could not do his last schedule session – and on-court one about blocking and defense training. Giovanni nixed that plan, though. He told them he would push his return trip back to Saturday. He wanted to get that last session in. That’s exactly what happened.

This, of course, caused confusion. The organizers had sent out a message to attendees already saying the session was cancelled. Despite that, it ended up being standing room only around the court as he presented.

It should be noted that his trip to the Convention forced Giovanni to miss coaching his Vakifbank team in the CEV Champions League. That was not the original plan, but apparently the match was moved for TV.

Wizards Presentation

The Convention was also the first time Volleyball Coaching Wizards was presented. John did a Friday session titled “Lessons Learned from Volleyball’s Wizard Coaches”. Mark was not available as he had a full coaching schedule, including a Polish league match that same evening.

The main focus of the session was to share some of the areas of overlap among the Wizard interviews, as well as some places where they disagree. As you can see, it was a pretty good audience. As usual, folks avoided the first few rows. :-)

The AVCA volunteer running the room gave John an estimate of 233 attendees. That is not too bad considering the All-American awards luncheon happened at the same time. And no one left until the Q&A section started. Even then, it was only a couple of people. They must have thought it was pretty good stuff!

At the start of the session John asked how many people knew about Volleyball Coaching Wizards and/or had read the book. Only a handful of hands went up. That was surprising from the perspective of thinking that people who knew about the project would seem to have been more likely to attend. It was great, though, that we could expose a whole big bunch of folks to what we’re doing.

Book Wizards Tom Turco and Ruth Nelson were in the crowd. So too was Tod Mattox. Tod actually helped answer one of the questions asked.

In one of the more interesting developments, the AVCA volunteer told John after the session that he was making the book required reading for the management class he taught. He thought the thinking of the Wizards about leading people and organizations would be very useful. Cool! We hadn’t really thought about things that way.

The AVCA said the recording of the session will be available on its website about 3-4 weeks after the event.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizards-2016-avca-convention/feed/01836Podcast Episode 30: The roles of a coach with Jan De Brandthttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-30-roles-coach-jan-de-brandt/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-30-roles-coach-jan-de-brandt/#respondSun, 20 Nov 2016 23:00:15 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1810In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the different roles a coach takes on as they work with their teams. Read More ...

]]>In his interview, Jan De Brandt shared what he thought of as the three roles of a coach. They are the dictator, the creator, and the observer. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about those different roles and how we take each of them on at different times while working with our teams.

Jan De Brandt has coached professionally in Italy, Turkey, Spain, Azerbaijan, and Germany, as well has his native Belgium. He is currently the Women’s National Team Coach for Hungary, having also coached Belgium. Among his coaching accomplishments are winning the European Volleyball League, silver medal in the CEV Champions League, bronze in the CEV Cup, plus league and cup titles in Turkey. Jan started his career coaching men, but switched to women after a few year

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-30-roles-coach-jan-de-brandt/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the different roles a coach takes on as they work with their teams. Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the different roles a coach takes on as they work with their teams. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean31:331810Podcast Episode 29: Playing time and expectations with Vital Heynenhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-29-playing-time-expectations-vital-heynen/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-29-playing-time-expectations-vital-heynen/#respondSun, 06 Nov 2016 23:00:25 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1801In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk playing time and managing the expectations of both players and those outside the team. Read More ...

]]>In this episode we take a look at playing time and the expectations related to them. Vital Heynen provides a starting point for the discussion. He shares his thoughts on keeping a squad – and management – happy. The conversation carries on from there.

Vital Heynen is the current head coach at German professional team VfB Friedrichshafen. He led the German Men’s National Team team to bronze at the 2014 World Championships. He has coached at the professional level for a number of years, having won a bunch of silverware during his time in his native Belgium. He has also coached clubs in Poland and Turkey. Vital also had a lengthy career as a player in his own right.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-29-playing-time-expectations-vital-heynen/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk playing time and managing the expectations of both players and those outside the team. Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk playing time and managing the expectations of both players and those outside the team. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean31:471801Podcast Episode 28: Starting a new season with your teamhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-28-starting-new-season-team/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-28-starting-new-season-team/#respondSun, 23 Oct 2016 22:00:43 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1792In this is episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about things that need to be done at the start of a season to bring a team together. Read More ...

]]>What do you do at the start of a new season? Sometimes you have a lot of returning players and only a few new ones. In other cases you have a lot of turnover, if not a completely new squad. In this episode of the podcast we talk about the things that are important to do at the outset, particularly in the area of leadership. That’s in terms of both it’s identification and recognition.

In this episode we reference the interview with Tom Turco, that features in the Volleyball Coaching Wizards book. Friend of the show, Ruben Wolochin is mentioned. He was with us for both Episode 5 and Episode 6 of the podcast. While Sue Gozansky does not get a specific mention, we do talk about some of what we talked about in Episode 1 of the podcast.

We also talk about this interview excerpt from John Dunning with respect to team culture.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-28-starting-new-season-team/feed/0In this is episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about things that need to be done at the start of a season to bring a team together. Read More ...In this is episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about things that need to be done at the start of a season to bring a team together. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean39:251792Podcast Episode 27: The first Volleyball Coaching Wizards bookhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-27-first-volleyball-coaching-wizards-book/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-27-first-volleyball-coaching-wizards-book/#respondSun, 09 Oct 2016 22:00:58 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1773In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards podcast we talk about the first ever Volleyball Coaching Wizards book, which was recently released. Read More ...

]]>The first ever Volleyball Coaching Wizards book was recently released. In this episode of the the podcast we talk about the book, and about the whole Wizards project that has brought about it’s development.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-27-first-volleyball-coaching-wizards-book/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards podcast we talk about the first ever Volleyball Coaching Wizards book, which was recently released. Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards podcast we talk about the first ever Volleyball Coaching Wizards book, which was recently released. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean26:291773Podcast Episode 26: Player-Coach relationships, with Athanasios Papageorgiouhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-26-player-coach-relationships-with-athanasios-papageorgiou/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-26-player-coach-relationships-with-athanasios-papageorgiou/#respondMon, 26 Sep 2016 15:45:45 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1747In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the player-coach relationship, which may be the most important part of coaching. Read More ...

]]>The relationship between player and coach could be the most important aspect of being a successful coach. In this episode of the podcast we explore that idea. It starts off with two excerpts from highly respected German coach and coach educator Athanasios Papageorgiou. They bring up the idea of looking at coaching beyond what you do in practice and how you manage match situations.

Athanasios Papageorgiou is probably best known in his native Germany as a coaching educator as he was Head of Coach Education for the German Volleyball Federation from 1986 to 2014. He remains and FIVB Coach Instructor, which he’s been since 1993. Papa, as he’s known, coached professionally from 1986 to 1992, winning a German championship and a German Cup during that time. Since 1983 he has been head coach for the German National Disabled Volleyball Team (standing), and has also coached the beach version since 2006. He taught volleyball at the German Coaches Academy for many years and has authored five books.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-26-player-coach-relationships-with-athanasios-papageorgiou/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the player-coach relationship, which may be the most important part of coaching. Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the player-coach relationship, which may be the most important part of coaching. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean33:411747Volleyball Coaching Wizard Tod Mattoxhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-tod-mattox/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-tod-mattox/#respondMon, 19 Sep 2016 07:00:31 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1580Tod Mattox has been a fixture of Southern California high school and juniors coaching for 30+ years. He likes to look at things a little different than most Read More ...

Tod Mattox likes to do things a little differently than other coaches. It seems to be working! He’s one of the most respected high school coaches not just in his local San Diego area volleyball community, but throughout California and beyond.

His resume includes:

Over 600 wins in 30 years of high school coaching, including 7 San Diego County Championships

USA Volleyball Leadership Award in 2008

2016 Head Coaches Award from the San Diego Hall of Champions

AVP beach coach

Long-time coaching clinician

Here’s some of what Tod discusses in his interview:

– Challenging assumptions

– Managing team parents

– Coaching evaluations and looking to improve as a coach over the season

– Working with players on college recruiting

Play this excerpt for a taste of the sort of insights and ideas you’ll get from the full interview:

Get access to Tod’s interview now for just a $14 contribution to the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project.

Note: PayPal is used to process the payment, but a PayPal account is not required.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-tod-mattox/feed/01580Podcast Episode 25: Important Skills for a Coach, with Craig Marshallhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-25-important-skills-for-a-coach-with-craig-marshall/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-25-important-skills-for-a-coach-with-craig-marshall/#respondSun, 11 Sep 2016 22:00:24 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1717In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the skills necessary to be a successful coach, with a wander through coach demeanor Read More ...

]]>What are the most important skills for a coach? Craig Marshall shares his thoughts in this episode. We start our discussion there, and eventually circle back to end there. In between, though, we wander around through a few other subjects. Hopefully, you’ll find them interesting. :-)

Australian coach Craig Marshall is a fixture on the world beach volleyball circuit. He has coached teams on the highly competitive World Tour for nearly two decades, with eight podium finishes and a World Championships medal. He has also coached multiple medal wins on Continental tours, including a historic clean sweep of medals at the 2016 Asian Championships. He coached the Australian men in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics tournaments, and was on-hand in 2012 as well.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-25-important-skills-for-a-coach-with-craig-marshall/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the skills necessary to be a successful coach, with a wander through coach demeanor Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we talk about the skills necessary to be a successful coach, with a wander through coach demeanor Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean27:281717Volleyball Coaching Wizard Craig Marshallhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-craig-marshall/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-craig-marshall/#respondMon, 05 Sep 2016 07:00:08 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1625Australian Craig Marshall is the first full-time beach volleyball coach to be interviewed. He's spent nearly two decades on the professional tour. Read More ...

There are others we’ve interviewed who have done some beach coaching. Australian Craig Marshall, though, is the first of our interviewees who does it full-time. Beach volleyball coaching has taken him around the world and to multiple Olympic Games.

His resume includes:

Nearly 20 years coaching on the pro beach volleyball World Tour

8 podium finishes and a World Championships medal

Multiple medal wins on Continental tours, including a historic clean sweep of medals at the 2016 Asian Championships

Coached the Australian men in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics tournaments

Here’s some of what Craig discusses in his interview:

– Staying in one position for so long

– The pressure of coaching where there is a lot of fan support

– Dealing with problem personalities in the team

– Remembering that coaching is about the players, not about the coach

Play this excerpt for a taste of the sort of insights and ideas you’ll get from the full interview:

Get access to Craig’s interview now for just a $14 contribution to the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project.

Note: PayPal is used to process the payment, but a PayPal account is not required.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/volleyball-coaching-wizard-craig-marshall/feed/01625Podcast Episode 24: 2016 Olympics Reviewhttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-24-2016-olympics-review/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-24-2016-olympics-review/#respondSun, 28 Aug 2016 22:00:38 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1708In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we have a look back on the volleyball from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Read More ...

After a busy Summer full of volleyball, work, and book development, we’re back with a new episode of the podcast. The 2016 Olympics have just ended, so we decided to focus this show’s discussion on that tournament. By the way, we had one current Wizard coaching in Rio. Giovanni Guidetti lead his Netherlands team to a strong 4th place finish, which surprised many.

By the way, John’s discussion of making subs when losing big in a set can be found here.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/podcast-episode-24-2016-olympics-review/feed/0In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we have a look back on the volleyball from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Read More ...In this episode of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards Podcast we have a look back on the volleyball from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Read More ...Blog – Volleyball Coaching Wizardsclean43:221708Amazon has no respect for Volleyball!http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/amazon-has-no-respect-for-volleyball/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/amazon-has-no-respect-for-volleyball/#respondWed, 27 Jul 2016 17:17:00 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1686Volleyball doesn't have its own listing in the Sports category at Amazon. That lack of profile is something we want to change with the Wizards book series. Read More ...

]]>Did you know Volleyball doesn’t have its own individual listing in the Sports category at Amazon?

Seriously! Check it out. When you do you’ll see that Volleyball is put under the Other Team Sports sub-category.

Come on! Mountaineering and Rodeos get their own category, but not volleyball?

Then, on top of that, quite often the top-selling books in the Volleyball category on Amazon aren’t even volleyball books! Have a look:

These sorts of thing are an indication that volleyball isn’t doing a good job on the business side of things, particularly in terms of marketing the sport and presenting it in a legitimate way. That needs to change.

This is part of what we seek to accomplish with Volleyball Coaching Wizards. We want the series of books we develop based on all the interviews we’re doing to help take our sport out of the shadows and provide for it a literature comparable to what you see in other sports. It will be a chance for volleyball coaches all over the world to read about, and be inspired and educated by, great coaches in our sport – just like basketball and baseball and football coaches can in their own sport.

Not that we in volleyball can learn from what coaches in other sports do. We certainly can. Just take a look at our Recommended Reading list as an example. We think, though, that coaches in other sports should also be looking to learn from what we’re doing.

So much of what comes out of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards interviews isn’t sport-specific. It’s about coaching philosophy and style. It’s about dealing with people. It’s about managing time and expectations. All coaches have these things in common.

Getting attention beyond our sport – and in some cases even within it – takes something special, though.

That’s exactly what we’re planning for the launch of the first Wizards book. Click here to find out more about the book and how you can stay updated on our release plans.

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/amazon-has-no-respect-for-volleyball/feed/01686High school coaches can’t be among the world’s best?http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/high-school-coaches-cant-among-worlds-best/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/high-school-coaches-cant-among-worlds-best/#respondTue, 12 Jul 2016 23:02:20 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1616A recent comment on a sample book cover design implies that high school coaches cannot be considered among the world's best. Why should that be the case? Read More ...

]]>Sorry if this seems like a rant. We need to respond to a comment that speaks to the very heart of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project, though. Someone who rated the first 8 cover design options under consideration left it anonymously.

For the cover shown at left they said:

“how does high school .. and world’s greatest coaches make sense – only in usa perhaps”

Firstly, the “High School Greats” bit is just a sample bit of text offered off the top of the head as a placeholder. You can see the “developing the team concept” alternative used in some of the designs. Actual book topics are not decided yet.

Second, and more importantly, why can’t high school coaches be among the world’s best?

Is it because most of the world doesn’t have high school volleyball? Or is it because high school coaches are youth coaches, and youth coaches can’t be considered great?

The whole point of Volleyball Coaching Wizards is to bring to light coaches who excel, regardless of level. This doesn’t just mean those at the very highest level.

We cannot make the assumption that just because a coach spends their career at the high school or youth level they couldn’t be just as successful if they coached college, professional, or international level players. Similarly, we can’t assume high level coaches are just as effective coaching younger, less experienced players.

Certainly, there are Wizard coaches who started their careers in the youth or high school ranks and moved up to higher levels. There are also, however, many coaches out there who either through choice or circumstance found themselves in a niche where they thrived and achieved well above average success.

There are WAY more coaches at the lower levels of the game than there are at the top level. Some will work their way up the ladder. Most won’t. Everyone along the spectrum deserves to not only get to understand what those coaching at higher levels than theirs think and do, but also the actions and thoughts of those with great success at their own level.

That is a major point of Volleyball Coaching Wizards.

P.S.: This same person also made the comment “who knows or cares about the authors names – you are not Grisham – yet … keep it small” for one of the other designs. Seems like someone perhaps got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. :-)

]]>http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/high-school-coaches-cant-among-worlds-best/feed/01616John Dunning on defining team culturehttp://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/john-dunning-defining-team-culture/
http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/john-dunning-defining-team-culture/#respondMon, 04 Jul 2016 14:37:43 +0000http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/?p=1609Here's the first in a series of interview clips with the guys at the Art of Coaching Volleyball. It features John Dunning talking team culture. Read More ...

]]>At the Art of Coaching Volleyball clinic in Fort Worth, TX (held at TCU), John got a chance to sit down with John Dunning, Terry Liskevych, and Russ Rose for a set of interviews. They were not full Wizards style interviews – which generally go 1:30-2:00 hours in length – but they addressed some similar themes. We’ll be releasing clips from those interviews on our YouTube channel over time – five of them this week.

Here’s the first, featuring John Dunning talking about developing and enforcing team culture.